There are six Flag Raisers on the photo. Four in the
front line and two in back.
The front four are (left to right) Ira
Hayes, Franklin Sousley, John Bradley and Harlon
Block.

The back two
are Michael Strank (behind Sousley) and Rene Gagnon
(behind Bradley). Strank, Block and Sousley would
die shortly afterwards. Bradley, Hayes and Gagnon
became national heroes within weeks.

Ira Hayes 
January 12, 1923 - January 24, 1955

Ira Hamilton Hayes is a full blood Pima Indian and was born
in Sacaton, Arizona, on the Pima Reservation on Jan 12,
1923. His parents Joe E. and Nancy W. Hayes were both farming
people. When he enlisted in the Marine Corps, he had hardly
ever been off the Reservation. His Chief told him to be
an "Honorable Warrior" and bring honor upon his
family. Ira was a dedicated Marine. Quiet and steady, he
was admired by his fellow Marines who fought alongside him
in three Pacific battles.

Ira Hayes was a noted World War ll hero. Although
he had a normal childhood on his reservation, his life changed
dramatically when war broke out and he joined the Marine
Corps. After he completed courses under the U.S. Marine
Corps Parachutist School at San Diego, California. He was
lovingly dubbed "Chief Falling Cloud." Ira Hayes
was assigned to a parachute battalion of the fleet Marine
Force.

By the beginning of 1945, he was part of the
American invasion force that attacked the Japanese stronghold
of Iwo Jima. On Feb. 23, 1945 to signal the end of Japanese
control, Hayes and five other's raised the U. S. flag atop
Mount Suribuchi on the island of Iwo Jima. Three of the
six men were killed while raising the flag. This heroic
act was photographed by Joe Rosenthal, and it transformed
Ira Hayes' life for ever. Subsequently a commemorative postage
stamp was created as well as bronze statue in Washington
DC.

President Franklin D. Roosevelt called the
brave survivors of the flag raising back to the United States
to aid a war bond drive. At the White House, President Truman
told Ira, "You are an American hero." But Ira
didn't feel pride. As he later lamented, "How could
I feel like a hero when only five men in my platoon of 45
survived, when only 27 men in my company of 250 managed
to escape death or injury?" Later, they were shuttled
from one city to another for publicity purposes with questionable
sincerity on the part of the American military. Ira Hayes
asked to be sent back to the front lines, stating that "sometimes
I wish that guy had never made that picture".

The Bond Tour was an ordeal for Ira. He couldn't
understand or accept the adulation . . . "It was supposed
to be soft duty, but I couldn't take it. Everywhere we went
people shoved drinks in our hands and said 'You're a Hero!'
We knew we hadn't done that much but you couldn't tell them
that."

At the conclusion of World War II Ira went
back to the reservation attempting to lead an anonymous
life. But it didn't turn out that way . . . "I kept
getting hundreds of letters. And people would drive through
the reservation, walk up to me and ask, 'Are you the Indian
who raised the flag on Iwo Jima"

Ira tried to drown his "Conflict of Honor"
with alcohol. Arrested as drunk and disorderly, his pain
was clear . . . "I was sick. I guess I was about to
crack up thinking about all my good buddies. They were better
men than me and they're not coming back. Much less back
to the White House, like me."

He was never able to get his life back in
balance again. Ira Hayes died of exposure at the age of
thirty-three on Jan, 24th 1955. He was memoralized by the
Pima people and characterized as "a hero to everyone
but himself". He is buried in Arlington Cemetery. He
never married.